Softball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Chicago Bears
Favorite memory competing in sports: Our second game against Truman (last year). The first time we played them they beat us. When we played them the second time, we played amazing. We won and broke the school hitting record.
Funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: There’s actually two things. When Izzy completely took out the first baseman when we played South and every time Chelsea talks or tries to explain something.
Music on iPod: Boston, A Day to Remember, Bullet for My Valentine
Future plans: Graduate from college, get married and have my own training facility.
Words to live by: “Never say never.”
One goal before turning 30: Run a marathon
One thing people don’t know about me: I play flute in the band.
By Mary Jane Souder
Shannon McVicar is her own person.
The Bensalem senior, who is never without a smile, is not bound by convention, and since she is on leave from her job during softball season, McVicar is taking advantage of her freedom of expression.
“I’m going to the hairdresser on Wednesday, and I’m planning on doing the whole ends of my hair blue,” she said with a laugh.
Don’t be fooled by the blue hair.
“You don’t want to make assumptions until you know,” coach Dan Schram said. “Then you find out this is a topnotch student, a kid who carries a job.
“She is always respectful to adults, never backs down on a commitment or challenge. She’s a very accepting kid, nice to everyone around her.”
Schram, an assistant coach at the time, admits that he misread McVicar when she joined the softball program as a freshman.
“She came in with a couple of other ninth graders who were kind of serious about softball,” he said. “It took me a while to understand her personality.
“She’s the kind of kid who always laughs, always smiles, and sometimes you don’t know where someone is coming from when they’re always so lighthearted. I would sometimes mistake her as not serious, but it turns out she just has a really good disposition about everything she did.”
That good disposition certainly came in handy when, as a freshman, McVicar, despite her limited experience, volunteered to try her hand at pitching.
“We had a senior who had chronic injuries, and Shannon – with a big smile on her face – said, ‘I’ll pitch,’ not realizing she’s going up against potential Division One athletes like (Pennsbury’s) D’Anna Devine,” Schram said. “It was one of those things where it was the strength of character where she knew there was no one else to pitch, and she stepped up.”
McVicar admits she was decidedly naïve about what she was getting herself into.
“It didn’t really hit me that I was pitching to girls who were like 18,” she said. “We were getting run-ruled every game. For me, I was just so happy I was playing. I was like, ‘I’m a freshman on varsity. This is awesome.’
“Looking back on it now, I think ‘How did I ever go through that?’ I guess it was the fact that I was so young and naïve that kept me going.”
With Schram at the helm of the varsity the following year, McVicar spent her sophomore season bouncing up and down between the varsity and jayvee. She began her junior year on the fence between the two squads yet again.
“I really was hard on her at times,” Schram admits. “Then the opportunity came where we were in disarray and I needed someone to catch.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is an 11th grader who’s bouncing back and forth. It’s been a while since I really put some faith in Shannon, and I think she’s looking for an opportunity.’”
Schram asked McVicar if she was interested, and she seized the opportunity despite her limited experience behind the plate.
“One of the games with jayvee, our catcher said, ‘I don’t want to catch today,’ and I said, ‘Heck, I’ll do it,’” McVicar recalled. “Schram has a lot of confidence in me just because he’s known me forever.
“One day he pulled me up from jayvee and said, ‘How do you feel about catching?’ At that point, I would have done anything to play.”
McVicar didn’t just play. She excelled.
“Here comes Shannon McVicar catches and doesn’t make a single error behind the plate, bats .400 and executes small ball plays and we go 7-3 with her to finish the season,” Schram said. “I realized that lighthearted sense of humor and that practicality was what was really helping us compete.
“She knew how to keep things light with the other kids. She also brought out the best in my pitcher, Jackie Morell. She’s the girl that saved our season. I could tell that was going to catapult her.”
The Owls didn’t make the playoffs, but McVicar had served notice and – not surprisingly – had a lot of fun in the process.
“It was awesome,” she said. ‘Last year’s season was the best experience I’ve ever had playing softball.”
The Owls finished the season 11-8 but did not get a bid to the playoffs.
“I felt really bad for her,” Schram said. “She felt such an uneasiness with me because she didn’t know if I’d put her back with jayvee or whatnot.
“I don’t think she knew – at that point, I just thought the world of her. Wow, this kid passed the test of character. Between then and now, she became very, very focused on softball.”
This year McVicar is penciled in to start at second base.
“Her physical conditioning in the last year and her approach to softball – she really became very serious in the last year, and it’s really nice to see because you can tell that last season with catching she really was inspired,” Schram said. “Now she hits like crazy, and she’s become such an asset.
“It’s a success story. She had a point where she was ready to bale out because she couldn’t get a spot on varsity. When I gave her the spot, it was tremendous. Now I’m grateful to her.”
McVicar admits it was a difficult journey, but quitting was never a consideration.
“It was tough, but then again, I never really let it get me down,” she said. “At the end of my sophomore year, I was a little discouraged, but I was like, ‘You know what – this isn’t the end of the world. I can do better.’ I stuck to my stuff and got myself back together.”
It’s been quite a journey for an athlete whose softball career didn’t begin until she was in sixth grade. To that point, soccer and dancing occupied most of her spare time.
“I actually danced for probably 12 years just to get a trophy,” said McVicar, who quit the same year she final obtained the elusive trophy. “I hated every minute of it, but I did it.”
McVicar’s younger sister Erin played travel softball, and at the suggestion of her father, Shannon decided to give it a try.
“I used to watch her travel games, and I was like, ‘Wow, this looks like a lot of fun. I should try this,’” she said. “Once I started playing softball, I realized that’s what I wanted to do.
“I was just better at it than soccer, and it was a lot more fun. All my friends played, and we all played together. It was a good time.”
It wasn’t long before she joined the travel circuit, initially playing for the Middletown Mystics and now the Philadelphia Spirit.
Off the softball diamond, McVicar is a student assistant in Schram’s 11th grade government class.
“I trust her as much as I’ve trusted anyone,” he said. “She’s a really, really special kid.
“She’s worldy, and you can talk about things with her. Everything about her is wholesome and true.
“I’ve never seen anyone so nice to other people. She never tells a lie, she never has a bad word to say about people. I haven’t had too many kids who are as humble as her as well. She never boasts about herself.”
McVicar has her sights set on attending East Stroudsburg where she hopes to continue her softball career.
“She could fit on a college team right now,” Schram said. “She’s that skilled, and that is due to her hard work and determination.”
An honor roll student, McVicar is considering athletic training as a major.
For now, she’s enjoying every minute of her final softball season.
“There’s so much talent,” she said. “I’m so excited. I just can’t wait to play. Just getting out on the field is awesome.”
The experiences of her past have only made McVicar stronger.
“I just think back and I’m like, ‘I got through that. I can get through anything,” she said.
Schram, meanwhile, is looking forward to an exciting softball season with McVicar squarely in the middle of the mix.
“She came back this fall and was in great shape,” he said. ‘I could see she was serious and focused and really set on making the season coming up something special for all of us. I owe her a lot. I really do.”
